Nikki Barrett, Anousha Zarkesh win key CGA Awards

Nikki Barrett and Anousha Zarkesh won multiple prizes at the Casting Guild of Australia Awards presented last Friday in Melbourne.

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Barrett received the awards for her work in See Pictures/Gran Via Productions/Windalong Productions’ Breath (best casting in a feature film), Easy Tiger’s Jack Irish series 2 (TV drama) and Fremantle Australia’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (TV miniseries and telemovie).

Zarkesh took home the awards for Princess Pictures’ Wrong Kind of Black (best achievement in casting) and Scarlett Pictures’ Black Comedy series 3 (TV comedy).

“We had a lucky year in that all three of these projects were very collaborative casting processes with the filmmakers actively engaged in trying to find something true to the world they were creating. It’s always the best kind of casting to be involved in and shows on screen,” Barrett tells IF.

Zarkesh said: “I’m very humbled and honoured to receive the nominations and awards by my peers. Black Comedy is so fun to cast – It’s a risky, smart and edgy sketch comedy show. Brilliant cast, writers, directors and Kath Shelper at the helm. I can’t wait to start on series 4.

“Wrong Kind of Black is Boori Monty Pryor’s amazing life story played by the delicious Clarence Ryan – a story of resistance and finding inner strength to endure hardships.”

The awards were handed out at a function at the Melbourne office of Holding Redlich hosted by Bad Mothers’ Michala Banas and Toby Truslove. Nominees and winners were determined by CGA members.

The event also honoured this years’s crop of the CGA’s Rising Stars: George Pullar (Fighting Season), Michael Sheasby (The Nightingale), Harry Greenwood (True History of the Kelly Gang), Tess Haubrich (Bad Mothers), Markella Kavenagh (The Cry), George Zhao (The Family Law), Milly Alcock (Upright), Kimie Tsukakoshi (The Bureau of Magical Things), Harvey Zielinski and Alexandra Jensen.

The full list of winners:

Best casting in a feature film

Breath Nikki Barrett

Best casting in a TV comedy

Black Comedy Anousha Zarkesh

Best casting in a TV drama

Jack Irish Nikki Barrett

Best casting in a TV miniseries and telemovie
Picnic at Hanging Rock Nikki Barrett